Placement within Oregon's Veterans' Advocacy Community

From
a community perspective, the Oregon Veterans Legal Clinic works cooperatively
with the Military and Veterans Law Section of the Oregon State Bar, the Oregon
Family Assistance Program, the eight Grantees of the Supportive Services for
Veteran Families (SSVF) Program throughout Oregon, the Veterans Affairs
Administration, the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs and its county
Veterans Services Offices, the Veterans’ Justice Project, Military OneSource,
Army OneSource, the Innocent Warrior Project, the Office of the Staff Judge
Advocate of the Oregon National Guard/Air National Guard, the Oregon State
Bar’s Modest Means and Veterans Assistance Panels, and the U.S. Army Reserve 6th
Legal Operations Detachment.In
order to provide a deeper learning experience to our students and to address
the absence of comprehensive legal screening for Participants in Oregon’s
Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Grants, we will partner with
the SSVF Grantees throughout Oregon to initiate the SSVF Pilot Project: “Providing
Uniform and Universal Legal Screening to All Oregon SSVF Participants.”This Pilot Project will involve
OVLS screening of every new enrollee in the SSVF Program in order
to identify civil legal barriers to stable and permanent housing and to
identify a legal solution plan for each Participant for whom civil legal
barriers are identified. Some of those referrals will be directed to the OVLC.Because
OVLC is not a “mini law firm,” its pedagogical function must take
precedence.Meritorious cases that are
commensurate with the students’ current level of clinical training, which do
not present any impermissible conflict, and are efficacious to our underlying
instruction plan will be handpicked for in-clinic representation.As
part of our pedagogical function and our underlying mission to coordinate and
rally Oregon’s Legal Community around the principles of Legal Service to
Veterans, we will act as a “clearinghouse” for the remainder of the screened
Veterans whom we are unable to handle in-clinic and refer those cases out, when
possible, to practicing pro-bono and
“low-bono” attorneys throughout
Oregon who are interested in representing Veterans with meritorious cases.In addition, students will lead in efforts to
develop courses of instruction in-clinic to train Oregon lawyers to better
understand and serve the unique legal needs of Oregon’s Veterans and their
Families; students will be involved in advocating for reform of laws and
regulations that impact Veterans and their families; and students and clinic
staff will be encouraged to speak at local and national conferences.Students
will partner with other Veterans Clinics and law firms, when appropriate, to file
amicus briefs on key Veterans issues, as well as cooperate with other Veterans
Clinics to expand the range of clinical service throughout the United States.Lastly,
when appropriate, students will be given the opportunity to partner with Veterans
Treatment Courts, a growing trend within the treatment court community designed
to rehabilitate rather than simply punish veterans who commit criminal
offenses.